For the Love of beer

A’Don Allen

Rieslings. Chardonnay. Cabernet. Catawba. Concord. Niagara. These are all the vernacular of the Finger Lakes Region of the Southern Tier. The Finger Lakes Region is Wine Country and home to over 100 wineries. Finger Lakes Wine Country is well renowned and known across the world. In fact, some may say only Napa Valley in California is more well-known for American wines, than here in the Southern Tier. If you travel in the Finger Lakes Region these days however, you are beginning to see a new explosion joining Wine Country. With new terms to add, such as IPA, Hops, Rice, Lagers, Barley, Flights and so many more. Beer, Craft Beer to be exact has exploded across the world and especially here in the Southern Tier with over 75 microbreweries in the Finger Lakes alone. Now if you think craft beer is a new thing, think again. In 1979 then President Jimmy Carter signed legislation making home brewing legal. Cam Lavallee, co-host of “What’s On Tap”, says that most of the pop-up breweries did indeed, begin at home. “Everywhere we’ve gone to we’ve heard different stories about people taking their love of beer, as well as the creating process, and starting out in their homes or at a similar small scale then, they realized what they were making was actually a really good product. Typically, they had a lot of positive feedback from those who tried it and convinced them it might actually be a worthwhile endeavor to try and brew on a larger scale.” So what makes craft beer so appealing? Why is it so different from your traditional beers (Budweiser, Miller, Coors, etc.)? The traditional beers are mass produced. Whereas Craft Beers focuses more on flavors and nuances and often has higher alcohol content than regular beer. Does this mean that craft beers are becoming more popular than traditional beers? Numbers suggest maybe. According to brewersassociation.org, overall U.S. beer volume sales were down 2% in 2019, whereas craft brewer sales continued to grow at a rate of 4% by volume, reaching 13.6% of the U.S. beer market by volume. Craft production grew the most for taprooms. Retail dollar sales of craft increased 6%, up to $29.3 billion, and now account for more than 25% of the $116.0 billion

U.S. beer market. So will we see a day didn’t turn a profit for the first 3 years.” ing a few places reach out to us, which where craft beers a more popular than Upstate is one of the first local brewer- was pretty cool.” Lavallee says the say, Budweiser? “I mean, you’re still ies and they currently have their beers best part has been meeting the people. always going to have those guys in the in bars and restaurants across the state. Hearing the stories about how they got game. Says Lavallee, They’ve gotten to started in brewing, and how they were that level for a reason. You’re always With the growth and the opening of so able to open up their own shops, and going to have people who swear by many breweries, Cam Lavallee and his many of them said they went into it Bud, Coors, or Miller. Now, it seems co-Worker Eric Webler, decided they with a “betting on themselves” mentallike they just need to find a way to wanted to try different local beers. So ity. It inspired the co-hosts to try and adapt to the beer scene and its constant in the summer of 2020, Cam and Eric brew their own craft beer! “Well, as changes. I feel like that’s why you’re premiered their Vlog, “What’s On Tap”, of now, we’ve only brewed one beer, a seeing such a strong push for the hard Cam and Eric want to showcase the Holiday Ale, and while it may not have seltzers from the major brands now. breweries and the beers that they make. come out exactly as it should have, it They’ve realized that selling one style They have visited different breweries was a really fun experience. We spent won’t cut it any more. I several hours going through the whole wouldn’t be surprised if, process, learning little tricks to help in the next few years, you make things work better and faster.” start to see those companies Lavallee went on to say… “The biggest begin experimenting more thing we struggled with was getting the in the IPA game, or another wort to cool down quickly. We had it easy-to-drink style. Noth- on my back porch in about 15 degree ing crazy, but something to weather, with the pot surrounded by keep everyone happy.” Tom snow, and it still took close to 2 hours Brown, CEO of Media to get to the temperature we were lookBarker and host of the 2020 ing for. So, a really big lesson learned Beer Festival, says that while on the first try.” he doesn’t see craft beers Seated (L)Cam Lavallee, (R) Eric Webler overtaking the big dogs, taste and diversity is the big game chang- and reviewed different beers and the er. “When you try something like a stories behind them. “Eric said he had Budweiser or Coors or Miller Genuine been watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Draft, yeah…that gets you there, but Dives the night before and wondered if you have something that’s an inter- why there weren’t any shows in that esting challenge to your palate, and it style for breweries. ”Says Lavallee. “We happens to be local, that’s going to pull had only recently found out how much off from the others.” we liked beer and became friends, but he was about two or three sentences in While the Craft Beer Explosion is pick- and I was sold. And from there, we just ing up steam, it’s not relatively new, and started mass emailing any breweries we Cam and Eric have caught the Craft it definitely wasn’t overnight. Upstate could find through Google in the area. Beer Bug! They are a part of the Craft Brewing Company opened its doors in We wanted to start in the Binghamton Beer Phenomenon, which is right here 2011 and at the time was brewery num- area, so we were thankful to be able to in our backyard. You can see Cam and ber 1650 in the United States. There get Farmhouse, Water Street, Beer Tree, Eric and What’s On Tap on YouTube, are now currently over 8,000 breweries and The North all onboard very early and follow them on Facebook, in the country. Mark Neumann, owner on. And once other places started to Instagram and Twitter. of Upstate says it’s definitely been a see what the show was about, it became labor of love. “We started in 2011 with easier to pitch it to places, and we even 2 beers; we now have over 60 different started to see suggestions from viewers beers. But it wasn’t overnight. We about where to go next, as well as hav-